No matter what product or service you provide or what industry your business is in, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is important. For example, if your business provides travel-related services, it’s a good idea to include information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, advice from consulates, etc.

The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it involves a great deal of work and resources. You have to do a lot of data sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a much easier way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with the latest information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your readers with great information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What You Need To Know About RSS

• RSS, which, according to some is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
• RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
• RSS feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news headlines, videos, etc., which users can choose to subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse updates posted on these websites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their content.
• Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software tools also let you combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates from multiple sources.

This detailed guide shows you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other sites on your site using RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.

First, let’s look at syndication.

Online media publications use syndication to publish content from news agencies all around the world.

Syndication allows news reporting agencies to deliver readers interesting stories and up-to-the-minute news items from around the planet without actually having to employ and post more news reporters and writers everywhere in the world …

(Many news reporting agencies use syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies around the world.)

Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their news stories using feeds …

(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)

Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.

Most news reporting agencies and major sites have a feed section (look for menu links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many digital agencies will include an RSS feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections of the site …

(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com)

gives readers access to information from different sections of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, editorials, etc.)

Feed sections can also contain subcategories …

(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

The Benefits Of Syndicating Content

Adding content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s site additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create this content …

(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)

While adding a feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other sites to use your content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …

(Consider trying to get other online users to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress RSS Feed – About

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in your navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(You can access your WordPress RSS feed in the Meta section)

2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On some websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Links, or Follow Us section …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Follow, or Share slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar)

4) You can also view your feed by typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
• http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS …

(RSS feed items seen with a Firefox web browser)

Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …

(RSS feed items displayed on a Google Chrome browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

You can specify how many items you want displayed in your RSS page in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)

The feed will display the number of posts as you have specified section …

(The feed will display as many recent items you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your RSS feed)

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …

(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds will appear)

We have created a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:

• WordPress Post Excerpts An Overview

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, go to a website or blog and look for an RSS feed icon …

(Search for a ‘subscribe’ button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL)

If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into an online feed reader …

(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)

Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into readable content for humans.

How To Add RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites

In the example below, we’ll add content from other website or blog’s RSS feeds to yours.

Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar …

(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)

copy the RSS feed URL from a website or blog containing content that you would like to add to your site …

(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)

Next, go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(WordPress RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Sidebar

Refresh your web browser. The content should now display in the sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget) …

(RSS Feed Content Added To Sidebar Menu)

Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles

You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.

(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)

Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:

• How To Set Up Webmaster Accounts

How To Add RSS Feed Content To Your Posts

What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of a sidebar?

You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside the ’Add Plugins’ screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ search results – WordPress RSS plugins)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.

The plugins listed below are useful for adding feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into campaigns.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)

WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.

For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)

RSS Post Importer lets you import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.

RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each feed item as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)

The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, computers, and tablets and supports text in all languages.

The premium version contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)

The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.

This plugin provides loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication for WordPress site content.

As stated in the FeedWordPress site …

FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.

You can use this plugin to create aggregator sites, or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog by WPMUDev)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WP Plugin)

Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages Plugin For WordPress

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts.

To view this feed, go to the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …

(Comments Feed)

Comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in the Comments RSS page …

(RSS comments feed items as seen with Firefox)

Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you are using …

(RSS comments feed content as seen on Google Chrome)

Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …

(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)

Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
• http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your website has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Individual Posts

Being able to create an RSS feed for a single post item can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.

The formula for making an RSS feed for individual post items is shown below:

(Feed For Single Post)

To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post Feed)

Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not the content of the post itself.

Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds

Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(Format for WordPress category feed)

Select and copy the category link address …

(Copy the selected category link address …)

Add the word “feed” to the end of it …

(WP post categories RSS feed format)

The feed now only contains content posted under this category …

(Category RSS feed)

The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.

For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:

(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)

Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …

(WordPress post category feed format)

To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …

(Posts > Categories menu)

Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …

(Post Category ID)

In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …

(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)

Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …

(Paste the feed into your browser)

This will display the feed for that specific category …

(RSS feed of a specific post category)

Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …

(Post category feed format)

Here is the feed format again …

(Post category feed)

In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …

(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)

Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …

(Post category feed content)

Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.

Tip #4 – Publish A Feeds List

You can provide your own RSS feeds directory that allows readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories …

(Provide An RSS Feeds Directory)

Link an image like the one shown below to your category (or specific post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a separate page …

(RSS icon. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

If you need help with inserting tables into WordPress posts, go here:

• Inserting Tables Into Pages And Posts With WordPress

RSS Feeds – Notes

You can customize your feeds in various different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations without messing with code. Here are some examples of feeds you can display …

(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – RSS feed that displays your latest post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments left on your website or blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed for single posts
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Displays the latest comments made on a specific post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – RSS feed containing the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/07/19/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Includes latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/12/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Feed displaying latest items for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Feed displaying latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One last thing …

Remember to let your visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ buttons in a visible location …

(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)

Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add great content from other sites and get other sites to syndicate your content with WordPress and RSS!)

If you need great content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed 🙂

Resources:

• RSS Buttons – Visit an online resource site like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphic elements.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Go here for more information about RSS feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using their RSS feed.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website please see other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.

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